Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,395

Is Russia’s warfare connected Ukraine coming to an end? Putin won’t say

Here is wherever things basal connected Saturday, 20 December :

Fighting

• Russian attacks targeting ports successful Ukraine’s Odesa killed 7 radical and wounded 15, Governor Oleh Kiper said successful a station connected Telegram.
• Kiper described the onslaught arsenic “massive” and said it progressive Russian ballistic missiles, which targeted trucks that caught fire.
• The Kyiv Independent quality outlet reported that Odesa metropolis has been suffering from chronic powerfulness outages since December 13, owed to earlier Russian attacks.
• Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s Dnipro portion with artillery shelling and drones, damaging homes, powerfulness lines and a state pipeline, Vladyslav Hayvanenko, acting caput of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, wrote connected Facebook.
• Ukraine has taken backmost control of astir each of its bluish metropolis of Kupiansk aft isolating Russian forces and unending Russian claims to person seized the cardinal municipality centre.

Aid

• European Union leaders agreed to supply a $105.5bn interest-free indebtedness to Ukraine to conscionable the country’s subject and economical needs for the adjacent 2 years.
• EU leaders decided ‍to get currency connected superior markets to money Ukraine’s defence against Russia, alternatively than usage frozen Russian assets, diplomats said.

Diplomacy

• In his yearly “results of the year” code successful Moscow connected Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to sermon giving up the Ukrainian Russia has seized, arsenic portion of truce negotiations.
• “We cognize from statements from Zelenskyy that he’s not prepared to sermon territory issues,” Putin said.
• The Russian president besides attacked Europe’s handling of frozen Russian assets, labelling plans to usage them to money Ukraine arsenic “robbery”, alternatively than theft, due to the fact that it was being done openly.
• “Whatever they stole, they’ll person to springiness it backmost someday,” Putin said, pledging to prosecute ineligible enactment successful courts that helium described arsenic “independent of governmental decisions”.

Ceasefire talks

• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that advancement has been made to extremity Russia’s warfare connected Ukraine successful a year-end code successful Washington, DC.
• “I deliberation we’ve made progress, but we person a ways to go, and obviously, the hardest issues are ever the past issues,” Rubio told reporters.
• “We don’t spot surrender immoderate clip successful the adjacent future, and lone a negotiated colony tin extremity this war,” Rubio said, adding that immoderate determination astir ending the warfare volition beryllium up to Ukraine and Russia, and not the US.
• Top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov, who is successful the US for ceasefire discussions, said the US and Kyiv had agreed to proceed their associated efforts to scope a ceasefire.
• “We agreed with our American partners connected further steps and connected continuing our associated enactment successful the adjacent future,” Umerov wrote connected Telegram, without providing further details. He added that helium had informed Zelenskyy of the result of the talks.
• Putin’s peculiar envoy, Kirill ‍ Dmitriev, is heading ‍to Miami for a gathering with Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the US president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a Russian root told Reuters.
• The gathering successful Miami this play comes aft Witkoff and Kushner held talks successful Berlin with Ukrainian and European officials earlier this week to effort to scope a woody to ​end the war.
• The Russian root said that immoderate gathering betwixt Dmitriev and Ukrainian negotiators presently successful the US had been ruled out.

Regional Security

• Turkiye’s Ministry of the Interior said that it recovered a Russian-made reconnaissance drone successful the İzmit territory of Kocaeli, successful northwestern Turkiye, based connected “initial findings” from an ongoing investigation.
• An “unmanned aerial conveyance (UAV) believed to beryllium of the Russian-made Orlan-10 type, utilized for reconnaissance and surveillance, was found,” the ministry said successful a station connected X.
• Turkiye’s Ministry of National Defence said connected Monday that it had changeable down a drone implicit the Black Sea arsenic it approached Turkish airspace, according to section reports, without providing further details.
• Ukraine’s Ukrinform quality tract reported connected Friday that aft the drone was changeable down, Turkiye had informed some Kyiv and Moscow “of the request to enactment cautiously” truthful arsenic not to “negatively impact information successful the Black Sea”.